AXA celebrates 150th anniversary; ties to Syracuse date to 1862

Gloria Wright / The Post-StandardThe twin AXA Towers dominate the Syracuse skyline. AXA Equitable is celebrating 150 years in business. The company has been in Syracuse since 1862.

Syracuse, NY -- Ask anyone in Syracuse about AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co.'s connection to the city and chances are they will mention AXA Towers, the two prominent downtown office towers where 892 of the company's employees work.

But AXA's connections to Syracuse are much older than AXA Towers.

The company, which will celebrate its 150th anniversary on Sunday, has ties to Syracuse that go back almost to the city's founding in 1848.

On July 26, 1859, 25-year-old Henry B. Hyde, a cashier for Mutual Life Insurance Co. of New York, left that firm to found The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, operating out of a $75-a-month rented office at 98 Broadway in New York City. His first customer was his father.

Three years later, in 1862, Charles Pinney became the company's general agent in Syracuse, according to Discretion Winter, director of external affairs for AXA.

From his office in Syracuse, Pinney oversaw agents operating throughout the Upstate region, she said.

AXA's corporate presence in downtown Syracuse began in 1966, when its affiliate, MONY Life Insurance Co., opened the first of two 19-story towers, plus a connector wing. The second tower was completed in 1973.

The towers remain two of the more prominent features of the Syracuse skyline, particularly for travelers entering the city on Interstate 81 from the south.

Equitable demutualized in 1992 in what was the largest insurance company stock conversion at the time. It began its partnership with AXA Group that same year, when the Paris-based global insurer became the company's largest single investor.

The company has grown much since Hyde sold that first policy to his father. Business soared during the Civil War, perhaps because the war got more people thinking about the need for life insurance. In its 10th year, in 1869, Equitable sold more policies than any other insurance company in the world.

Over the years, it has endured two world wars, the Great Depression, 18 recessions and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In 2004, AXA acquired MONY (Mutual of New York), Hyde's former employer.

The company now serves more than 3 million clients in the Unites States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and is one of the Syracuse area's largest employers.